Warning: Major spoilers for “Sinners” below
Director Ryan Coogler’s latest film starring Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners,” takes audiences on a scary, thrilling and unexpected adventure from the moment the movie begins.
The supernatural horror flick opens with a shot of Sammie, portrayed by newcomer Miles Caton, arriving bloodied and bruised to his father’s Mississippi church service in the 1930s. Frightened as his son stumbles toward him with a broken guitar, the preacher asks Sammie to reject his love of music, for good.
Then, the movie rewinds 24 hours earlier to show a hopeful Sammie having the best day of his life with twin cousins Smoke and Stack — both played by Jordan — before the sun goes down and everything changes.
In the film, which also stars Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller and Li Jun Li, a night filled with music and joy quickly becomes a nightmare as the characters have to fight for survival against deadly vampires. Prior to its release in theaters on April 18, “Sinners” received rave reviews from critics, who described it as “vibrant and richly acted” and “bloody mayhem.” It also currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience score of 97%, which is Coogler’s best film score to date.
The gory last act is filled with jump scares, twists and a couple of post-credits scenes. Read on for TODAY.com’s breakdown of how “Sinners” ends, where we unpack all of the plotlines and the movie’s biggest questions, including who survives and who dies.
What happens at the end of ‘Sinners’?
After introducing characters like Smoke, Stack and Sammie in the first few minutes, “Sinners” shows them preparing to open a juke joint in an old mill the twins purchased from a deceitful and racist landowner. As the sun sets, patrons, including Mary (Steinfeld) and Pearline (Lawson), arrive for the establishment’s grand opening while others, such as Cornbread (Miller), Grace (Li), Delta Slim (Lindo) and Annie (Mosaku), are already there to help Smoke and Stack pull off a successful night.
The characters spend the early hours of the evening in pure revelry, dancing and singing along to Sammie’s music before an uninvited guest named Remmick (O’Connell) asks to be invited in. He is denied, but ominously waits outside.
Each time a character leaves the juke joint, they return changed and suddenly need approval to re-enter. Sensing an otherworldly presence, Annie quickly realizes that Remmick is a vampire who bites and creates more blood-thirsty creatures whenever a guest leaves the safety of the jukebar.
Remmick later turns Mary into a vampire, who in turn does the same to her former lover Stack. Soon, more guests are turned into the undead and only a handful of humans remain.
Who dies in ‘Sinners’?
Ultimately, everyone who is bitten and turned into a vampire dies, but some of those vampires do live on, which viewers learn in a post-credits scene.
Leading up to the climatic battle, Smoke, Annie, Delta Slim, Pearline, Grace and Sammie decide to think of a plan while Remmick and the other vampires await their demise. After a desperate Grace welcomes the vampires in, the others, armed with stakes and holy water, fight for their lives.
Annie is bitten and Smoke stabs her in the heart, at her request, before she becomes a vampire. Pearline is also killed and Grace is burned alive trying to defend herself against a vampire who has taken over her husband’s body. Delta Slim chooses to sacrifice himself to give Smoke and Sammie time to escape.
Before the credits officially roll, viewers learn that Smoke and Sammie are the only humans left standing.
Lindo spoke to TODAY.com about his character’s fate and why it was honorable given Delta Slim’s backstory.
“It’s a very heroic thing to do, but it’s also a sacrifice that’s necessary,” he said. “In order to, as I see it (and) as Delta Slim sees it, preserve the future of the music and the future of the culture, it has to be done.”
Miller, who was also interviewed by TODAY.com, chimed in and added that Delta Slim’s death represents “the redemption of whatever ills that he may have, that he may be carrying.”
Lindo agreed, saying his character felt compelled to save Sammie.
“The fact is part of my (character’s) alcoholism comes out of the guilt that I feel at not being able to have saved my friend who I talked about in the car,” he explained. “So it is redemptive. I couldn’t save him, but I will save the young preacher boy, the young one, the young pup who’s carrying the tradition forward.”
Who survives in ‘Sinners’?
As the last humans standing, Smoke and Sammie attempt to flee but vampire Stack catches them. Smoke and Stack fight and Smoke appears to get the upper hand before the scene cuts to show Sammie, who jumped out a window and injured his leg, being surrounded by Remmick and all the vampires.
While Remmick tries to drown and kill Sammie, the young musician reaches for his guitar — which the twins gave to him — and smashes it into Remmick’s head. The metal plate on the guitar lodges in Remmick’s head and kills him as the sun rises and turns all the other vampires into ashes.
Sammie returns home and the scene of him walking into the church service replays. Meanwhile, Smoke, who also survived, stays at the juke joint and waits for the man who sold him the old mill to arrive. He shoots the landowner and all the Ku Klux Klan members after previously learning from Remmick that they had planned to ambush Smoke, Stack and their friends the next morning.
During the shootout, one bullet hits Smoke and he slowly dies before being greeted by an apparition of Annie and their child, who died years ago.
Sammie now becomes the only human survivor. However, once the post-credits roll, viewers learn that Stack and Mary, who are both vampires, have survived as well.
What do the two post-credits scenes mean?
“Sinners” waits until a post-credits scene to reveal if Sammie chose to rebuke music like his father asked.
As the credits roll, viewers see an older Sammie playing music at a dive bar with his band in the ‘90s. The musician chose to continue to pursue his love of music despite that traumatic night.
In a second post-credits scene, the older version of Sammie sits at a bar before two familiar faces join him: Stack and Mary. It is revealed that Mary ran off and evaded the sunlight before Remmick and the others were burned years ago.
Stack sits by Sammie’s side and shares that he made a deal with Smoke during their fight to leave Sammie alone. Sammie tells them that he was having the best day of his life before the bloodbath. Stack agrees, pointing out that it was the last moment he felt sunshine and saw his brother.
Stack and Mary then leave, leaving the door open for a potential sequel.
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